Today we premiere an exclusive video from one of 2013’s most warmly anticipated albums…
The dark romance of fallen-upon-hard-times Deptford, with its tales of Walter Raleigh throwing his cape in a puddle for Elizabeth I, of the unsolved murder of Christopher Marlowe on the high street, of dancing through the night at Moor Places, now arrives at the heart-aching, hypnagogic melodies of singer and producer Daniel Woolhouse – also known as Deptford Goth. Mixing all the wonder and emotion (and goosebumps) of classic love songs with the computer-chipped magic of 21st-century South London bedrooms, the 28-year-old former primary school teacher’s assistant is a brilliant musician. He used to live in my ex-girlfriend’s house and we’d lie awake at night listening to his loops echoing through the walls to dawn, into songs like haunting Mariah Carey cover Real Love Fantasy, and on very rare occasions I’d see him in the corridor when I went to the toilet. Anyway. His debut album’s coming out in spring on Merok, onetime home of Crystal Castles, Salem and Teengirl Fantasy, and it’s an amazing work of melancholy. Although not actually goth, his is not happy music – and @deptfordgoth is not really a happy tweeter, with his thoughts on “fear… sobbing on a Yamaha… imagine going to McDonalds for a coffee and getting dumped” – but then the best music never is. Today we have the exclusive on Daniel’s homemade, three-dimensional video for Union – like Up, it has a lot of balloons and it makes me so happy and so sad.
Text: Dean Kissick
